2007; Kranky
The appeal of
Deerhunter, for me at least, has always been in their sound as opposed to their
content. I’m not trying to belittle them as players and songwriters, and it
goes without saying that Bradford Cox has (accidentally?) become one of this
generation’s most interesting lyricists in the years since Turn It Up, Faggot, but when I think back to what made me slowly
fall in love with Cryptograms it was
the entire experience as opposed to the craft of any one element. I could try
to recall specific riffs or lyrics that stood out, but mostly its power came
from its sound; it’s not an album to sing along to but one to simply absorb
without focusing on the distinct elements. I miss that angle on a lot of the
band’s more recent albums. They’re all good, occasionally very good, but there
seems to be more focus on the elements than the whole and that makes them feel
ordinary where Cryptograms felt
comfortingly alien yet familiar. Fluorescent
Grey might have been the final vestiges of that era, and returning to it
now makes me feel a bit nostalgic for the time when Cox and company were less
intent on being remembered so much as being felt.
You can definitely
hear the beginnings of the band’s evolution here though. It’s mostly in the way
its mixed, with Cox’ vocals acting as a clear focal point a lot of the time as
opposed to being on par with the rest of the band’s tableau, but there’s also
the fact that their instrumental atmosphere is much less full sounding here.
Sure the middle of the title track and the final part of “Wash Off” reach the
same sort of swirling haze that engulfed the bulk of Cryptograms but elsewhere things sound a bit more…common I guess.
Outside of Cox’ delivery, “Dr. Glass” especially sounds like the sort of track
that you could easily attribute to any given indie band, making it feel a bit
out of place at this point in the band’s career. If anything it’s the clearest
indication of where Microcastle was
heading while the rest of the tracks feel at least in part like Cryptograms throwbacks. It’s also the
site of Cox’ most easily digestible lyrics up to this point, though I’m not as
enamored of them as I am the less concrete images provided in “Fluorescent
Grey” and “Wash Off.” Given that, as on Cryptograms
the lyrics weren’t pre-written it’s odd that one of Cox’ stream of consciousness
rants would come off as more polished than the others but that’s how it feels.
The rest of
the material here is much more consistently successful in balancing the band’s
atmospheric and newly ascendant pop sides, especially the two longer cuts that
bookend the EP. “Fluorescent Grey” hinges on repetition, both in Cox’ mantraic ‘patiently,
patiently’ chant and in the simple metronomic riff that he and guitarist Locket
Pundt lock into early on, and when that repetition is broken by an explosion of
color halfway through the track it’s as exciting a moment as the band have been
responsible for up to now. “Wash Off” might be even more successful with its
much more involved riff and the hint of an actual story to its imagistic lyrics.
“Like New,” meanwhile, is a bit like the
less noted tracks on Cryptograms – I’m
specifically reminded of something like “Strange Lights” – in that it doesn’t
seem to be anything special on its own but as part of the experience it’s pretty
neat sounding. It’s probably the most psychedelic sounding track here too,
strengthening its ties to the preceding album’s tone like none of its
compatriots here. The fact that the four
tracks here have their own distinct identities as opposed to just feeling like
parts of a greater whole – Cox described them as being four singles and that’s
pretty accurate – is probably the biggest difference between it and its
immediate predecessor, but that’s not a bad thing by any stretch, especially
when the songs are as relatively strong as these four are.
What strikes
me most about Fluorescent Grey, both
as a standalone document and as part of the Deerhunter discography, is how
confident the band sounds. For all its great points, Cryptograms definitely sounded like a band finding its footing
while still being a hugely entertaining listen. Fluorescent Grey is tighter, more assured and possesses the sort of
swagger that bands get when they finally feel as good as people say they are. Listen
to the way that “Fluorescent Grey” works itself into a frenzy out of a
metronomic two-note riff, or the way that “Wash Off” builds itself off of a
similarly static pattern into an unsettling. These are the moves of a band
that’s found their sound and solidified it to the point where it can be
established quickly with each new song and stretched to fit each one like a
glove. This isn’t my favorite Deerhunter album, but it’s definitely the first
one where they’ve shed the uncertainty that accompanies most young bands. Even
if it was that uncertainty that made them special at first and they lost a bit
of character in the process, the trade-off wasn’t exactly for nothing. [7.6]
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